Uttar Pradesh Minorities Commission says 50 families were ’lured’ into conversion

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow, February 3, 2015: Questioning the legitimacy of the Agra "conversion" incident, the Uttar Pradesh Commission for Minorities has termed it a "fraud perpetrated on the 50 poor, illiterate Muslim families by a Hindu outfit".

The latest finding by the state government’s panel threatens to further polarise the communities and vitiate the already charged atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh. The spate of controversial ghar wapsi (conversion) programmes was kicked off on December 8 in Agra by the Hindu Jagran Samiti, but the state commission claimed that the "deceived" families were still practising Islam.

"The Hindu Jagran Samiti (HJS) had promised these families that the Centre would give them a house each at a function. Once they reached the venue, the unsuspecting families were made to sit around a havan kund and perform ahuti. They were misled by being told that the functioning was just beginning. The following day, the HJS started publicising that these families had converted," the 18-page report by the state commission stated.
 
The report, submitted to chief secretary Alok Ranjan on Monday, added: "But these families later refuted the religious conversion claim. They said they had agreed to attend the function only in the hope of getting a house from the Central government."

A letter by the Agra senior superintendent of police (SSP) to commission member Suhail Ayub Jinjani is also part of the report. The letter, written on January 5, states that Kishore Valmiki, a resident of the Vednagar locality in Agra, had been meeting the families of Muslim scrap dealers from Bihar: "After promising them ration and identity cards, Valmiki got a havan kund made inside a godown in the locality and brought these uneducated families there. After the havan, he gave each family an idol of goddess Kali."

Valmiki, a member of the Hindu Jagran Samiti, was arrested and released on bail a few days later.

UP Commission for Minorities chairperson Shakeel Ahmed said: "The HJS is an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). They are organising ghar wapsi programmes in Uttar Pradesh with the hope of helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the 2017 assembly elections."

The state minorities panel report also blames intelligence agencies and the police for their lackadaisical attitude: "The poor working of intelligence agencies has also been exposed.... This situation could have been averted if the intelligence agencies were alert."

In this regard, the commission mentioned another "conversion" plan by the HJS in Aligarh on December 25, 2014: "The organisers had booked a place for the event…and distributed pamphlets in the area. But the intelligence agencies had no information. The administration banned the event only after media reports."

An investigation team of the panel, comprising spokesperson Shafi Azmi and members Suhail Ayub Jinjani, Mufti Zilfikar Ali and Nafisul Hasan Advocate, has recommended action against the intelligence and police officials concerned.

"Action should be taken against the officers and personnel of the intelligence agencies and police department. The government should also keep a close watch on the activities of organisations that have been luring or terrorising the poor people and forcing them to undergo religious conversion," the commission stated.

It also recommended to the government to make housing arrangements for the poor families which were "lured" by the HJS activists.

The minorities commission also advised the Uttar Pradesh government to "start a campaign to identify slum residents and work towards improving the quality of their life".

Courtesy: Indiatoday